Category Archives: Coalition

Australia news live: more rain across flooded Queensland region brings ‘extended peak’

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Major flood warning issued in north-west Queensland after Burketown residents evacuated overnight. Follow the day’s news live

Control of submarines will remain with Australia: Courtney

Courtney appears confident that control of the submarines will remain with Australia, saying “no one wants to be in a situation where there is any conflict of who is in charge or who is giving orders or who is taking orders”.

We understand that that is precious for every nation, to be able to control and make their own decisions.

We have such a carve-out for Canada today. Again, the defence sectors are much more free-flowing and seamless because of the fact that we made that adjustment, and that is going to be a focus.

No one will be foisting off clunkers on good friends and allies.

We need to train up the Australian sailors and officers in terms of nuclear propulsion which is all we’re talking about here, not nuclear weapons. And when the time comes for the deeds, the title to be handed to the government of Australia of a vessel, that again is going to be totally with the full understanding that it is going to be under Australian control.

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Attacks on Hindu temples have ‘no place in Australia’, PM says; Sydney trains hit by delays – as it happened

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Burketown flood at ‘record levels’ with helicopter evacuations to continue throughout the day. This blog is now closed

Pandemic marriage laws protected LGBTQI people, advocate says

Marriage laws intended to give couples more flexibility through the Covid-19 pandemic offer LGBTQI people critical protection from discrimination and persecution, an advocate says.

This move to enable a celebrant to witness remotely the signing of a notice of intended marriage needs to be made permanent.

It’s not just for the convenience of anyone. There’s still a lot of queer people in Australia who are not out.

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Sydney trains delayed due to ‘communication issue’ – as it happened

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Facing up to financial distress

It is not just academic though – there have been increased reports of people feeling distressed because of financial pressures.

When people are under extreme financial pressure, that has implications for their wellbeing more broadly. I mean, I think that is understood. And I’m sure that the governor in accepting that meeting understands that.

What we want to do as government is make life a little bit easier for people where we can, whether it’s with energy bills, whether it’s with cheaper early childhood education, cheaper medicines, trying to get wages moving again, financial security is a big part of what we’re focused on, particularly when these cost-of-living pressures are so acute.

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Australia politics live: RBA interest rates decision due today; Atlassian cuts 500 jobs in latest tech layoffs

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Australian software company to cut about 500 jobs, representing 5% of its workforce. Follow the day’s news

Climate change minister: many industries cannot comply with emissions reduction without offsets

What about what David Pocock wants – limits on the number of carbon credits big polluters can use? Chris Bowen says:

My position publicly is the same as it is privately – that if you put hard caps on carbon credits when you’re requiring 4.9% emissions reduction each and every year, then that is a problem, because you’ve got industries which won’t be able to comply with that without without accessing [credits].

Now, people say you can’t offset your way to net zero and you can’t offset your way to the 1.5 degrees. And I agree with that.

Mr Bandt with respect says ‘well, there’s this pipeline of projects and Labor wants to approve them’, now that is not the case.

What there is, is a register of projects which companies have … filled in and said one day we might want to develop this or we’re interested in developing this … many of them are yet to get environmental approvals, finished final investment, decisions for board approval, insurance, finance, etc.

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Victoria’s bail laws to be loosened after being labelled ‘complete, unmitigated disaster’

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State’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, says Andrews government has ‘no plans to weaken the laws’ for offenders who pose a serious community safety risk

Victoria’s contentious bail laws, which doubled the imprisonment rate of Aboriginal women, are set to be loosened within months, as the opposition warns the changes must not lead to violent offenders being released into the community.

The Coalition has signalled a willingness to offer bipartisan support for the wide-ranging reforms but warned the government must put “community safety first”.

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Australia news live: mediation fails in Sally Rugg’s legal dispute with Monique Ryan; Sticky Fingers axed from Bluesfest

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Ley and Dutton express support for Bridget Archer after rumours Liberal party could dump her

Yesterday our political editor Katharine Murphy brought you the story that a veteran party insider suggested that the Liberal party could dump outspoken moderate Bridget Archer ahead of the next federal election.

Bridget is a friend, a colleague and a terrific member for the seat of Bass. I visited her not that long ago, and she’s doing great work and she’s an amazing woman, amazing woman. And you know, Patricia how much I respond well to amazing women.

Do you think 80,000 people who’ve got more than $3m are really doing it tough?

Well, that $3 million is not indexed. That will change over time. And the principle is the thing that Australians will note.

But are they doing it tough?

I’m not here to say who’s doing it tough and who’s not doing it tough.

Australians are doing it tough, though, aren’t they? And some are obviously not doing it tough.

Well, people are doing it tough for the government that hasn’t got the fiscal policy settings right. And doesn’t understand how to manage money and doesn’t have spending constraints anywhere within its programs. In all of this conversation, we have not heard anyone say that we’re going to save money. I mean, that seems to be just a passing comment from the government. Yes, of course. People are doing tough. They’re doing it tough because they can’t pay their electricity bills. They’re doing it tough because their mortgages are going up.

But they’re not the people with more than $3 million in their super accounts.

I’m not going to comment on what individual people might be experiencing in their family budgets. The direction this government is going is one that breaks faith with the Australian people and misunderstands the sound fundamental basis, which is: it’s your money, you deserve to keep more of it.

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Australia news live: Labor accuses Dutton of ‘irresponsible’ Aukus comments

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Chalmers reaffirms the government wants to include the defined benefits scheme, which apply to politicians’ and public servants’ pensions, in the changes:

Yes, we’re trying to include the defined benefits schemes in this. There’s a lot of complexity in this. Our intention is to include defined benefit.

What we said is that there’s an opportunity now, between yesterday’s announcement and the budget in May, to engage in some meaningful consultation … One of the things that we do want to engage on and consult on is how we include defined benefit in the changes we have announced.

We made it really clear yesterday that our focus in the system is on these superannuation tax concessions.

$150bn worth of concessions in the top 10 of those tax breaks by value – a third of that is superannuation.

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Liberal MPs break ranks to back Jim Chalmers’ discussion on superannuation reform

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Angus Taylor says Coalition will fight any changes but Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer says we should not ‘shy away from having a conversation’

Liberal moderates Russell Broadbent and Bridget Archer have broken ranks and endorsed the treasurer’s efforts to start a conversation about the fiscal sustainability of generous superannuation tax concessions.

Broadbent told the ABC on Monday it was unclear exactly what changes were being proposed but if the mooted overhaul was “fair and reasonable” then the Coalition should not stand in the way.

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‘I really was broken’: survivor welcomes Dominic Perrottet agreeing to ban gay conversion practices

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NSW premier gives bill ‘in-principle’ support as independent Alex Greenwich hails a ‘good day for our state’

Growing up as a teenager in the suburbs of Sydney, Chris Csabs was led to believe he needed to be “fixed”.

“I was gay and had grown up steeped in an ideology that told me that God had not made me that way. That there was a negative cause to my homosexuality,” he said.

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Bodies of missing men found – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches

Where the parties stand

So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.

We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.

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Australia politics live: Inland Rail review reveals ‘significant concerns’; senator asks if MPs’ phones safe from hackers

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Critics of project left frustrated and ‘ignored’ by previous government’s failure to heed views of regional communities. Follow the day’s news live

Joyce v Plibersek

Can there be a greater punishment than being the Labor MP chosen to “debate” Barnaby Joyce on commercial TV each week?

Well this Treasury analysis shows that price rises will be moderated, they won’t go up as much as was initially predicted and that’s because our policies are working, and it’s a shame that Barnaby and his side actually voted against the policies that have brought down energy prices in Australia, on top of not doing anything when they were in government to prepare for these energy price rises.

But we know that families are still doing is tough and that’s why we’re also delivering cheaper medicine, cheaper childcare, free Tafe and higher wages.

Well, you just heard it there. It’s the great swindle. Remember they said they were going to bring down the price of electricity by $275. Now they’re lauding the fact that it’s still going up and it will continue to go up, and at some time in the future, listen to this, it won’t go up as much as they expected it to. Now if you think that is worth banking, good luck.

As everything, you will see Liddell get blown up* and this will be under the Labor party’s watch, another power station literally blown up, another restriction on power supplies as we reduce supply and increase price. And I don’t see anything marvellous happening in the future except a Labor party which thinks that the way to fix power prices is to cap the two evils. Remember they don’t believe in coal or gas, but they do believe in capping it because they do understand all of a sudden that it is absolutely connected to power prices.

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Nearly 20,000 refugees to get same rights as other permanent residents after being kept ‘in limbo’

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Labor clears way for temporary protection and safe haven visa holders to apply for permanency

Nearly 20,000 refugees will soon be able to apply for permanency, giving them the same rights as permanent residents after being kept “in limbo”.

The changes – hailed by refugee advocates as “a victory of unity and compassion over division and fear” – were part a Labor election promise. They mean that about 19,000 temporary protection and safe haven enterprise visa holders will be eligible to apply for a permanent resolution of status visa.

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Fines against WA climate protester ‘absurdly excessive’, Human Rights Watch says; refund for Myki charges during outage – As it happened

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Activist pleaded guilty on Friday to criminal damage. This blog is now closed

Productivity commission report will be released in March

Chalmers says he has received a five-year review from the productivity commission about how Australia can respond to flagging productivity across the Australian economy.

I’d like to do that sooner, ideally in May, so that we can have this national debate about our productivity performance and some of the recommendations in there. Now, inevitably, a government won’t pick up and run with every single one of the recommendations from the Productivity Commission, but there may be some that we can run with. There will be some that align with the government’s economic plan and our policy objectives.

No doubt people will want to ask him about that and he can explain it. I think there’s a broader issue here about how the bank communicates the context for its decisions. This is one of the things that I have been discussing with the RBA Review Panel. I actually discussed it with them on Friday in one of the regular meetings that I have with the review panel, how they communicate their decisions and the context behind their decisions is one of the key focuses of that review.

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Australia news live: NSW Labor leader Chris Minns promises to ban gay conversion therapy; Cyclone Gabrielle intensifies

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Minns says that, if elected, his government will outlaw the ‘dangerous and damaging practice’

The Norfolk Island administrator, Eric Hutchinson, says there are “probably anywhere between 800-950 visitors on the island at the moment.”

Flights have been suspended for the next couple of days, although the usual flight from Sydney arrived as scheduled yesterday, as did the flight from Brisbane on Thursday.

We’ve moved through four stages of alertness, we are now at an orange. The Emergency Management Norfolk Island is meeting now and there is the possibility that they will then increase that to the highest level of alert, which is a red alert, and that basically means that people stay at home and don’t go out.

People are doing the right thing. The community has been well communicated with and, as I say, we have just got to now see this out. There is an emergency shelter that has been set up just now, where I am at the moment in the hall, so that is probably going to be used we think by visitors to the island.

It was a pretty wild night but the impact of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle isn’t expected to make its full impact until early this afternoon and that can potentially extend into the early hours of Sunday morning.

I will say, though, that Emergency Management Norfolk Island, we’ve had an incredible amount of support through the National Emergency Management Agency.

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Australian missing in Turkey found alive but two still unaccounted for – as it happened

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Ley denies opposition is a ‘no-alition’

Karvelas:

The prime minister use the word ‘no-alition’ to describe your political strategy this week – the reconstruction fund and your opposition to that, which was revealed this week. Is this opposition going to take the Tony Abbott approach, and just oppose everything?

Not at all. We just want the government to deliver on their promises. And we’re not giving them blank checks on the national reconstruction fund, either, because it’s $15bn. They haven’t explained how it will benefit our manufacturing sector with the imperatives right now that the industry sector needs.

The IMF has warned against these off-budget vehicles as $45bn of them in the government’s plan. And it’s not a plan for the economy as it is now. It’s not a plan for rising costs of living, for rising inflation. It’s not a plan that even makes the government’s own promises. So we’re just saying just deliver on your promises, prime minister.

Julian Leeser asked a perfectly sensible question in question time yesterday, which was about which part of the Calma-Langton report would you adopt? … It was a basic question about detail. The prime minister just didn’t even answer one single part of it.

But you could be part of the process. The prime minister is saying be part of the process.

We are part of the process … but if the prime minister can’t answer a simple question that wasn’t the least bit political, it was asked in a very flat, factual manner in parliament. And if he answered that in a political way, what that tells me [is] he’s politicising the debate. But I agree, I don’t want to see this politicised.

We don’t really have any guardrails around a final outcome with detail that lands exactly where we want it to, which is in the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians. … the prime minister has tied that to the concept of the voice but he can’t explain it. So until he provides the details, I believe it’s actually the Labor party that is putting reconciliation at risk.

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Angus Taylor behind decision to delay energy price rise report until after 2022 election

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Exclusive: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has revealed Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg also knew of the decision

The former energy minister Angus Taylor asked his department to consider delaying telling voters about electricity price rises before the May election, then made the decision to do so.

Taylor told media in October that he didn’t know about incoming price rises and that he didn’t see the Australian Energy Regulator’s report proposing to increase the default market offer. In May last year, a spokesperson for Taylor rejected claims the delay was for political reasons.

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Alan Tudge quits politics sparking byelection in former Liberal minister’s Victorian seat

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The byelection will be an early test of the opposition leader Peter Dutton in a state where the Liberal party has under-performed

The Liberal party will face a high-stakes byelection in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs after the Victorian shadow frontbencher Alan Tudge confirmed he will quit politics.

Tudge, who holds the marginal seat of Aston, confirmed his departure after question time on Thursday, saying his resignation would be effective from next week.

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Greens and crossbench join Coalition to hand Labor first major defeat in parliament

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Senate blocks attempt to water down super funds’ transparency rules

The Greens and Senate crossbench have teamed up with the Coalition to hand the Albanese a major parliamentary defeat, disallowing its regulations watering down superannuation funds’ transparency.

The Greens joined the Senate revolt on Thursday, after warning earlier in the week it intended to help defeat Labor because the government backflipped on the unrelated issue of million-dollar fines for bankers.

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Albanese’s stance against public funding for yes and no voice campaigns backed by Birmingham

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Coalition frontbencher breaks ranks with Peter Dutton saying taxpayer funds should not be used for referendum campaigns

The Labor government is standing firm against calls for public funding for the yes and no campaigns for the voice to parliament referendum, even drawing backing from a Coalition frontbencher who appeared to break ranks with the Liberal leader’s stance.

Simon Birmingham said taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for campaign advertising, despite it being being a condition of opposition leader Peter Dutton’s support for the referendum bill.

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Chinese-made security cameras to be removed from Australian government buildings

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More than 900 products made by Hikvision and Dahua discovered at 250 federal premises

The federal government has committed to removing Chinese-made security cameras at government buildings across Australia, admitting there is a potential security problem that needs to be addressed.

An audit of surveillance equipment, conducted by the shadow cybersecurity minister, James Paterson, has confirmed that more than 900 products built by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua are installed at government locations.

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